Words I Hate

[TexRex]

Having just looked into it a bit, and I mean a five minute look into it, it seems it has been a thing for the time you specified as different ways to pronounce the word 'ask', though it seems for the most part the 'ask' pronunciation has become more widespread, though I have only heard 'aks' being used over the last 10 years or so. Apparently there is an ethnic aspect to who mostly uses the 'aks', or 'ax', which I was unaware of, because I think I have seen many different people in the UK using it, mainly younger people it has to be said.

This article from the LA Times briefly cover it for anyone interested.

The English language, due to its widespread use, is probably more subject to dialectal and colloquial variation than any other. I believe you when you say you haven't been exposed to that particular example of said variation, and that's why it sounds off to you.

Now I don't presume to know your experiences, but I'd posit that, in the time you've noted an increase in use of that pronunciation, you've perhaps been in contact with more people from outside your immediate community--perhaps by going to college and/or entering the workforce.

Doesn't stop it being jarring to my ears though.

I get it. And I hope what I said didn't come off as me saying you should be okay with it, because that wasn't my intention.

 

[redhed17]

The English language, due to its widespread use, is probably more subject to dialectal and colloquial variation than any other. I believe you when you say you haven't been exposed to that particular example of said variation, and that's why it sounds off to you.

Now I don't presume to know your experiences, but I'd posit that, in the time you've noted an increase in use of that pronunciation, you've perhaps been in contact with more people from outside your immediate community--perhaps by going to college and/or entering the workforce.

I get it. And I hope what I said didn't come off as me saying you should be okay with it, because that wasn't my intention.

Living in Britain I'm used to dialects and accents changing from area to area, sometimes quite dramatically, every 10 miles or so throughout the country.

I have not noticed the use of 'aks' in my everyday life, and where I live has become a lot more 'cosmopolitan' over the last 30 years. I have heard it more so in the media, and as I said before, more with younger people. I don't think I have heard anyone over 30 use that pronunciation, despite its apparent longevity.

And it is more often that not, in the UK at least for me, associated with a London accent. Like I said earlier, it as only appeared to my ears over the last 10 years, so it was surprising that people have been doing it for so long. There is a famous footballer who sounds like he says it in a voice over for an advert that has started recently, and I just want to say 'ASK' every time I hear it.

You've enlightened me to the history of the word 'ask', and prompted me to look for a reason behind the different pronunciation by indicating how long it has been in use, about 800 years more than I thought, so thanks for that. Whatever you said would not make me OK with it though, and I didn't think you were indicating I should be.

I'm actually waiting for someone to say it to me in real life, as I want to say 'Pardon, you mean Ask!'

And on the subject of dialects changing, I visited the five towns of the Cinque Terre in Italy a few years ago, and it is said each town has a slightly different dialect, and they are mile or so apart, but in a hilly area, which no doubt led to the differences when the towns were less accessible to each other. Language is an interesting subject.

 

[W3H5]

I'm actually waiting for someone to say it to me in real life, as I want to say 'Pardon, you mean Ask!'

My response in London when hearing “aks”...

 

[redhed17]

My response in London when hearing “aks”...
View attachment 970009

 

[Famine]

It's not a word, but a pronunciation I've heard it a lot recently. I don't know if it's a general US thing, but the news people all say it the same way.

"Toward", pronounced as "tward".

 

[Liquid]

It's not a word, but a pronunciation I've heard it a lot recently. I don't know if it's a general US thing, but the news people all say it the same way.

"Toward", pronounced as "tward".

I think that's an accent thing for North America. Short, unstressed vowels get that a lot; forgiven you might hear as frgiven.

 

[UnkaD]

For a lot of those words I always just call it lazy tongue. A similar one is hearing tex when they mean text. My sister couldn't say "texts" if her life depended on it. It always comes out as texas.

A word I can't stand at all despite really being into the hobby itself is "Gunpla." It just really irks me.

 

[W3H5]

thing for North America

Could be. I had a friend from Oregon and he always said he was from “o’gon” any time he was asked.

Gunpla

It doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue.

Unlike soirée which is one of my favourite words. I don’t think we have a thread for favourite words.

 

[kolio]

Proprietary

I can't comprehend its meaning. I've done small research on it, but it still doesn't make sense to me when used in a sentence. I consider myself fairly intelligent and this has bothered me for quite a while.

Please help.

 

[polysmut]

Proprietary

I can't comprehend its meaning. I've done small research on it, but it still doesn't make sense to me when used in a sentence. I consider myself fairly intelligent and this has bothered me for quite a while.

Please help.

I think it normally means someone owns the rights to something. For example if you invent something and nobody else can sell it.

 

[TexRex]

Proprietary

I can't comprehend its meaning. I've done small research on it, but it still doesn't make sense to me when used in a sentence. I consider myself fairly intelligent and this has bothered me for quite a while.

Please help.

I think it normally means someone owns the rights to something. For example if you invent something and nobody else can sell it.

There are a number of definitions derived more directly from the Latin "proprietas" (property) and "proprius" (ownership) but the most common uses I've observed refer to products whose value is derived from ownership of intellectual property rights, such as a KFC's "secret recipe," or something non-standard and specific to a particular brand, such as charging cables for portable electronics.

 

[kolio]

I think it normally means someone owns the rights to something. For example if you invent something and nobody else can sell it.

There are a number of definitions derived more directly from the Latin "proprietas" (property) and "proprius" (ownership) but the most common uses I've observed refer to products whose value is derived from ownership of intellectual property rights, such as a KFC's "secret recipe," or something non-standard and specific to a particular brand, such as charging cables for portable electronics.

It's starting to sound like a positive term rather than negative. Is this always the case, or can it be used either way?

Tell me if this sounds correct: KFC's following can be attributed to their proprietary fried chicken recipe.

 

[TexRex]

It's starting to sound like a positive term rather than negative. Is this always the case, or can it be used either way?

Tell me if this sounds correct: KFC's following can be attributed to their proprietary fried chicken recipe.

I don't think it's either necessarily positive or negative. It just is.

In that context, I would say that the word is superfluous. It works, but as the subject is "their recipe," the quality of it being proprietary is implied. It's not...wrong.

I think you've got a handle on the meaning.

 

[redhed17]

Proprietary

I can't comprehend its meaning. I've done small research on it, but it still doesn't make sense to me when used in a sentence. I consider myself fairly intelligent and this has bothered me for quite a while.

Please help.

Most of the times I see that word it is has been in relation to software in a device. Afaik, Windows OS and Mac OS are Propriety Software.

Proprietary software is software that legally remains the property of its creator, whether that’s an individual, an organisation or a company. That means they own all rights to the product, including the intellectual property rights to the source code: the code that makes the program run.

Linux would be the opposite of that, being Open Source software, in that nobody owns the Code, and people are free to make changes and adapt.

 

[W3H5]

Most of the times I see that word it is has been in relation to software in a device. Afaik, Windows OS and Mac OS are Propriety Software.

I always thought the licensed, manufacturer programmes within an OS were proprietary of the system rather than the system itself, inasmuch as the OS is the proprietor of the programme.
Just my thoughts, I could be wrong.

 

[redhed17]

I always thought the licensed, manufacturer programmes within an OS were proprietary of the system rather than the system itself, inasmuch as the OS is the proprietor of the programme.
Just my thoughts, I could be wrong.

That's going to make things clearer.

I may also be wrong, but the OS Code is owned by the manufacturer, in the cases I mentioned Microsoft and Apple, and is their Propriety Software. Their code is a closed system owned by each company, under their control, and subject to copyright. They may Licence aspects of their Code from other manufacturers, Flash support for example, but as a whole, they own it all.

 

[kolio]

This is fascinating. I have learned things today.

Thanks, GTPers.

 

[UnkaD]

Proprietary

I can't comprehend its meaning. I've done small research on it, but it still doesn't make sense to me when used in a sentence. I consider myself fairly intelligent and this has bothered me for quite a while.

Please help.

It's interesting that you bring this up, because in the last year I've noticed it has become a bit of a buzz word that a lot of companies have adopted for ads and informercials. I see it everywhere now and when I looked the word up I thought, well that's completely redundant. It's just like all that other fancy-sounding filler language to fluff up a product and make you think hey, maybe this blanket really will change my life.

 

[kolio]

It's interesting that you bring this up, because in the last year I've noticed it has become a bit of a buzz word that a lot of companies have adopted for ads and informercials. I see it everywhere now and when I looked the word up I thought, well that's completely redundant. It's just like all that other fancy-sounding filler language to fluff up a product and make you think hey, maybe this blanket really will change my life.

I was under the impression it was redundant too. That's partially why I was having a hard time to understand it.

Speaking of redundancy ...


-------


Here is a redundant word sequence I see too often. It doesn't exactly bother me - because it is common - but I'm posting to see if others notice. And I believe it's technically proper grammar.

"way too"

It's a double adverb which isn't an issue, but "way" and "too" can have very similar meanings.


Example.

That was way too close for comfort.


You could eliminate either word and the sentence would not change in meaning.

 

[ScottPuss20]

I know that BHP means Broken Hill Proprietary (they're a mining company in Australia). Nowadays it's a massive organisation in conjunction with Billiton, but the original group of miners were from Broken Hill and became mining proprietors. At least that's where I've heard the word.

 

[polysmut]

"way too"

It's a double adverb which isn't an issue, but "way" and "too" can have very similar meanings.


Example.

That was way too close for comfort.

In British English we'd normally use "far too close" not "way too close".

Imagine a distressed kidnap victim tied to a railway line. Don't worry, our hero is on the way to perform a dramatic rescue.
The rescue is successful with 10 minutes to spare before the next train would have caused a splat. That's fairly close but not by the dramatic standards we might have expected if this was an old silent film.
If the same rescue is performed with only 1 minute to spare, that's a bit too close for comfort.
With less than 5 seconds to spare it would be far too close for comfort. Or way too close.

You could eliminate either word and the sentence would not change in meaning.

You wouldn't eliminate the "too" in British. I've heard the phrase "way close" many times but thought it was an American version of "very close".

 

[Jimlaad43]

I don't think there's anything wrong with that. It's a form of exaggeration which is still unspecifically quantifiable.

If London is too far to get to in 30 minutes, Paris is way too far to go.

 

[Dave A]

In British English we'd normally use "far too close" not "way too close".

Imagine a distressed kidnap victim tied to a railway line. Don't worry, our hero is on the way to perform a dramatic rescue.
The rescue is successful with 10 minutes to spare before the next train would have caused a splat. That's fairly close but not by the dramatic standards we might have expected if this was an old silent film.
If the same rescue is performed with only 1 minute to spare, that's a bit too close for comfort.
With less than 5 seconds to spare it would be far too close for comfort. Or way too close.


You wouldn't eliminate the "too" in British. I've heard the phrase "way close" many times but thought it was an American version of "very close".

I don't recall the last time I noticed anyone here describe aynthing as "way close", "too close" is perfectly acceptable and I agree that "far too close" is what would generally be used insteat of "way too close" here.

I would assume "way close" and "way too close" are more americanisms. Alternative English that some people use here might be along the lines of "well close" or "proper close".

Or in the case of your person on the train line "you was almost brown bread".

 

[TexRex]

"proper close"

Yeah, that'll get you punched.

 

[Liquid]

Another substitute for 'very' you hear round my way sometimes:

Dead.

Dead good.
Dead close.
Dead happy.

I don't know why, it just makes sense. Even though as I type this it clearly doesn't.

 

[polysmut]

I don't recall the last time I noticed anyone here describe aynthing as "way close", "too close" is perfectly acceptable and I agree that "far too close" is what would generally be used insteat of "way too close" here.

I would assume "way close" and "way too close" are more americanisms. Alternative English that some people use here might be along the lines of "well close" or "proper close".

Or in the case of your person on the train line "you was almost brown bread".

Yeah, I've heard "way close" many times but didn't say it was from Brits. I might not have phrased that clearly.

Proper close, proper good and the like were/are reasonably common parlance in the north east of England where I'm from.
I've noticed the similar "properly good", "properly close" seemingly increase in use, even making it into the language of tv presenters. I think I've always subconsciously assumed it comes from an attempt to make "proper good" more grammatically correct while actually being a case of getting the idiom wrong. I've done no research to validate this assumption and wouldn't be at all surprised if I'm wrong.

 

[kolio]

In British English we'd normally use "far too close" not "way too close".

Imagine a distressed kidnap victim tied to a railway line. Don't worry, our hero is on the way to perform a dramatic rescue.
The rescue is successful with 10 minutes to spare before the next train would have caused a splat. That's fairly close but not by the dramatic standards we might have expected if this was an old silent film.
If the same rescue is performed with only 1 minute to spare, that's a bit too close for comfort.
With less than 5 seconds to spare it would be far too close for comfort. Or way too close.

Ah, that makes sense. 👍

I've heard the phrase "way close" many times but thought it was an American version of "very close".

Let's change "close" to "off" and see if it sounds different.


John's landing was very off target.

John's landing was way off target.


I'd say both are correct. But I prefer the sound of "way" instead of "very" in most situations including "close" as in the first example.

 

[TexRex]

"Proper off."

 

[kolio]

"Proper off."

Kinky

 

[polysmut]

"Proper off."

"Proper off it" was a very common term round my backstreets. Meaning either very intoxicated or very crazy.